How Many Backlinks Do I Need to Rank in 2024?

Guy Saikhum
August 18, 2024
Fact Checked

Many Google ranking factors can help you rank on the SERPs, but do you know the best Google ranking factor?

That is backlinks.

They remain a crucial factor in determining whether a website should rank on search engine results pages (SERPs).

But “How many backlinks do I need to rank?“

The answer is 10-20 for a local business with lower-competition keywords.

For more competitive keywords, around 100+

This depends on your niche.

This means you’ll need to develop an effective link-building strategy.

Let’s explore how to identify your link profile and some link-building techniques you can apply to your website.

Understanding Backlinks and Their Role in SEO

Backlinks are links from other websites pointing to you.

They help by making your site trustworthy.

Google’s PageRank algorithm relies on backlinks to understand the importance of websites.

However, all links aren’t good.

The backlink quality plays a significant role in their impact on your website’s search engine rankings.

That’s why you’d want to focus on acquiring relevant backlinks.

Factors Influencing the Number of Backlinks Needed

There are various factors for how many backlinks you need to rank for a specific keyword or topic:

Website age and authority: Newer websites need to work 10x as hard to compete against older websites with lots of authority.
Your target keyword difficulty: Keywords with high search volume and higher difficulty need good backlinks to rank well.
Content quality and relevance: High-quality and relevant content can rank well with fewer backlinks.

Understanding Domain Rating

Domain Rating (DR) and Page Authority are terms created by Moz.

Basically, websites with a high domain authority will have a better chance of ranking than new websites with fewer links and lower DR.

Although this is an unofficial term, it can help you identify how authoritative your website is to rank.

The Importance of High-Quality Backlinks

Lots of people keep focusing on building 100s of low-quality links.

Instead, focus on building links that will make a big difference.

Make sure the links come from trusted entities.

For example, we acquired a link from Wikipedia to our client’s website.

Even if it’s a no-follow, it’s still a powerful link that moves the needle.

Google trusts the site more, and my client gets relevant organic traffic to his website.

I’d rather have fewer backlinks than hundreds of low-quality links.

How To Analyse Your Current Backlink Profile

Before you start acquiring new backlinks, review your current profile to see where you’re at.

Go to Semrush and enter your domain in “Backlink Analytics.“

You’ll then see how many backlinks are pointing to your site.

You’ll also see your referring domains and your website authority score.

You can go to the “Anchors” tab to review your anchor text.

Go to “Outbound Domains” and you’ll see the sites you link out to.

Finally, to check your spammy links, go to “Backlink Audit” and enter your domain.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the “toxic links.”

Semrush made this term, and people panic too much over this.

Now, you can start to develop a proper strategy.

Developing an Effective Link-Building Strategy

Here are some key things to consider:

Set realistic goals based on your budget.
Analyse your competitors’ backlink profiles and see how many links you replicate.
Focus on building backlinks from websites in your industry.
Don’t abuse anchor text.

Some Techniques for Building High-Quality Backlinks

Create Linkable Content

Build high-quality content that people love to link to.

With this, your blog posts will attract natural backlinks without relying on your budget.

This is one of my favourite techniques.

For example, my article, SEO For Estate Agents, ranks well because this is very helpful content.

Guest Posting

Go on Google and type “Write for us + your niche.”

Broken Link Building

I like to use Check My Links to see if a page has broken links.

If you find any, contact the website owner with similar or better content you can offer.

Common Misconception About Backlinks

Even though your website needs high-quality links.

Not focusing on on-page SEO and technical SEO is a big mistake.

Remember, link building is just one part of SEO.

To get on the first page of Google, you have to make sure your on-page optimisation is on point.

Best Way To Use These Tools

These SEO tools will help you create and monitor your backlink strategy.

To start ranking pages and acquire relevant links, you’ll need the following tools:

Ahrefs (Site Explorer and Content Explorer)
Semrush (Backlink Analytics)
Majestic (Site Explorer)
Google Search Console (for monitoring your backlink profile)
Google Analytics (for tracking referral traffic from backlinks)

Need High-Quality Links?

Do you want to appear in the Google search results and rank high for your core keywords?

We can get in front of your target audience.

We’ll do all the content marketing for you starting from press releases, blogger outreach, niche edits, and many more.

With our link building services, we’re very confident that we can increase your overall website ranking, and get you to page one on Google.